Dr. Celeste López-Abbate is an Associate Researcher at CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina), based at the Argentine Institute of Oceanography. Her previous academic experience includes leading multidisciplinary projects on marine biogeochemistry in the Southwest Atlantic.
Her research focuses on understanding how microbial plankton diversity and activity influence carbon fluxes in the Patagonian Sea, a globally recognized CO2 sink. She investigates microbial-driven mechanisms of carbon transformation and sequestration, including remineralization, conversion into refractory compounds, and export to the deep ocean. Using field experiments, chemical biomarkers, and modeling approaches, her team evaluates viral lysis, trophic pathways, and particulate carbon advection to understand and quantify these fluxes.
Dr. López-Abbate was selected in 2024 by the IPCC Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories for its Scoping Meeting on Carbon Dioxide Removal. She serves as Argentina’s National Contact for IMBeR, is a member of the Executive Committee of the UN-endorsed Global ONCE project, and is part of the SOLAS South American mCDR node. In 2022, she was awarded the Smart-Lab Zero Emission Challenge by the Bahía Blanca Port Consortium.
She holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University Nacional del Sur and completed her postdoctoral training in microbial oceanography.
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